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Outlines
I. Believers’ resources 1:3-4
II. Believers’ needs 1:5-9
III. Believers’ potential 1:10-11 (adapted from Constable)
(1) God has given Christians all that they need to become spiritually mature (vv. 3–4).
(2) Christians must actively pursue spiritual maturity (vv. 5–9).
(3) Christians must pursue spiritual maturity if they expect to be welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom (vv. 10-11). (Moo, p 40 f)
The differences between these two epistles are also significant. The first epistle ends, “Stand firm in it [grace]” (5:12). Its theme is the sufficiency of God’s grace. We need to stand fast in grace as Christians. The second epistle ends, “grow in … grace” (3:18). Its theme is the responsibility of grace. We need to keep growing in God’s grace. This second letter builds on the first: We do not only need to stand fast in grace, but we also need to keep growing in it. (Constable)
1:1
But the full membership of Gentiles into the new covenant people of God-and the terms on which they would be accepted-was the biggest theological issue the early Christians faced (see, for instance, the book of Galatians). When Peter, therefore, briefly reminds his Gentile readers that they enjoy “a faith as precious” as that of Jewish Christians, he is touching on a matter that most of us assume but which was of recent and overwhelming significance for him and his readers. And we should not forget that it was Peter himself whom God used to bring about this full inclusion of Gentiles. God sent Peter a vision to help him understand that Gentiles could not be excluded, and God used Peter to bring to faith the first Gentile convert (Acts 10). And it was Peter, with his impeccable Jewish credentials, who spoke out decisively in favor of allowing Gentiles to enter the new covenant on the basis of faith alone (15:7-11). We can better appreciate the phrase “to those who… have received a faith as precious as ours” when we hear the echoes of this struggle in the background. (Moo, p 37 f)
Peter referred to his audience at first in very general terms that could apply to all Christians: “those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.” … Other non-biblical Greek writers used the unique Greek word translated “same kind” (isotimos) to describe immigrants who received citizenship privileges equal to those of native inhabitants. ¶ The word ours may be an editorial plural, but it is more likely a reference to the other apostles (cf. 3:2; 1 John 1:1-4; et al.). A second view is that ours refers to the whole Christian community.[24] A third view is that “ours” refers to Jewish Christians, with whom the Gentiles had been admitted into the same fellowship.[25] ¶ Some of the early Gnostic false teachers claimed a higher level of spiritual experience that, they claimed, only Christians who followed their teachings could attain. However Peter here asserted that every Christian has the same essential faith—including all of its spiritual benefits—that the apostles had. (Constable)
1:2
For Peter, in other words, “growing in knowledge” is a key idea in this letter. In the Bible, “knowing” is a very personal activity. The Old Testament writers use the word to describe intimate relations between one person and another, including sexual relations. The New Testament also uses the word this way, as when Paul asserts that “Jesus knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). Therefore, when Peter begins his letter by referring to “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,” he is saying that the readers of the letter will only enjoy “grace and peace in abundance” as they grow in their relationship to God and to Jesus. (Moo, p 38)
“The words know or knowledge, in their varied forms, occur sixteen times in the epistle. Six times the intensive form, signifying full knowledge, is used.”[27’ D. Edmund Hiebert, An Introduction to the New Testament, 3:153.] (Constable)
“… as used in 2 Peter … epignosis [full knowledge] designates the fundamental Christian knowledge received in conversion, whereas gnosis is knowledge which can be acquired and developed in the course of Christian life …”[28, Bauckham, pp. 337-38.] (Constable)
“In our day we are rightly warned about the danger of a sterile faith, of a ‘head’ knowledge that never touches the heart. But we need equally to be careful of a ‘heart’ knowledge that never touches the head! Too many Christians know too little about their faith; we are therefore often unprepared to explain how our ‘God’ differs from the ‘God’ of Mormonism or of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.” (Moo, p 39)
The Greeks, and especially the Gnostics, prided themselves on their knowledge, but Peter noted that the knowledge of God and of Jesus was the key to grace and peace (cf. 3:18). (Constable)
1:3
The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. (Chambers, Feb. 10)
There are scores of Christians who have been sermonized for decades, and they are still babes in Christ.84 We Christians are not transformed simple by hearing sermons week after week. We are transformed by regular encounters with Jesus Christ. (Viola, pp 292-293, 414)
1:4
The Bible makes clear that our ultimate separation from “corruption (phthora) will come only with the resurrection of the body. Peter uses the word in this eschatological sense in 2 Peter 2:10, and this may be what he means by the phrase “escape the corruption in the world.”[9] But the reference to evil desires at the end of the verse, along with Peter’s focus on godliness in this passage, suggests rather that escaping corruption has to do with the renouncing of sin in this life.[10] Note that Peter also uses phthora with this moral sense (2:20) I think, then, that Peter sees our participation in the divine nature as consisting especially in the new ability to resist sin through our union with Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit.”[11] (Moo, p 44)1
1:5
It is by faith alone that we are saved through grace, but this saving faith does not continue by itself (Eph. 2:8-10). Peter’s chain of eight virtues (vv. 5-7) starts with faith and ends in love. (The Expositor’s …, p 269)2
Christians are told to “make every effort to add to [their] faith.” In NT times the word “add” (epichoregein) was used of making a rich or lavish provision. Originally it referred to a person who paid the expenses of a chorus in staging a play. To “make every effort” (spoude) requires both zeal and seriousness in the pursuit of holiness." (The Expositor’s …, p 269)
1:6
In the words of nineteenth-century Scottish theologian John Brown, ‘Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.’ (Bridges, p 32)
Let us remember that holiness affects not only our personal relationship to God but all of our relationships. It affects all you do (literally “your conduct”)… (Marshal, p 53)
1 Moo cited, Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, 183 [9]; Mayor, The Epistle of St. Jude and the Second Epistle of St. Peter, 88 [10]; and wrote “See the “Bridging Contexts” and Contemporary Significance” sections [of his book] [11].
2 The The Expositor’s Bible Commentary cited, (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5; Ignatius To the Ephesians 14.1: “Faith is the beginning and love is the end”).
Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, all numbered notes that are URL linked are retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.
Jeff Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness. Navpress, 2006.
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost For His Highest. Online and updated ver., utmost.org, 2022.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 12, ed. Frank Gaebelein, et al., Zondervan, 1981.
Marshall, I. Howard. 1 Peter. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, Ed. Grant Osborne, et al., InterVarsity Press, 1991.
Moo, Douglas. 2 Peter, Jude. “The NIV Application Commentary,” ed. Terry Muck, et al., Zondervan, 1996.
Viola, Frank and George Barna. Pagan Christianity? Tyndale, 2012. Viola and Barna cited Alexander R. Hay. The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary. The New Testament Missionary Union, 1947, pp 292-293, 414 [see footnote 84].
2.1